New fears for elephants over ivory sale to China

Conservationists yesterday attacked a decision by the international community to allow China to buy stockpiles of elephant ivory saying it would lead to more elephants being killed in Africa.

A meeting of the Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), in Geneva, agreed that China could bid for up to 108 tonnes of ivory, collected from culls and natural deaths and offered for sale by Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Cites judged that China, which wants to continue an ivory carving tradition, had put sufficient measures in place to regulate sales and crack down on the illegal domestic trade.

Although international trade in elephant ivory was banned by Cites in 1989, an experimental one-off sale was made to Japan in 1999. Conservation groups claimed the sale significantly increased the killing of elephants in Africa. The new sale would also be a one-off.

Robbie Marsland, UK director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, which wants an outright ban on the trade, said: "We are deeply disappointed. The decision plays Russian roulette with wild elephants. Allowing new ivory to be imported into China will stimulate demand and create a smokescreen for illegal ivory to be laundered into the legal market."

Susan Lieberman, WWF International's species programme director, said illegal trade was of more concern than a one-off sale: "The sight of ivory openly and illegally on sale in many African cities is likely to be a far more powerful encouragement to those contemplating poaching and smuggling than a strictly controlled one-off sale."

The sale has also raised concern about fundraising for Robert Mugabe's regime, which holds about four tonnes.

Although Bulgaria and the UK, on behalf of the EU, voted in favour of approving the sale to China, a statement read out by the UK delegation to the Cites standing committee said: "Proceeds from sales of these stockpiles must be used exclusively for elephant and community conservation and development programmes.

"Given the nature of the regime in Zimbabwe, which has trampled democracy, human rights and the rule of law, we have real concerns about how the regime will use the money they gain from the sale of their ivory. The UK hopes that potential customers will share our concerns, and the UK will urge both to defer any purchase of Zimbabwean ivory until such time as [there is] a legitimate, democratically elected government."

Traffic, the wildlife trade monitoring network, said there was no evidence of a link between the ivory sale and illegal trading. Tom Milliken, its director of eastern and southern African operations, said China had been cracking down on illegal domestic trade.

Until now Japan was the only other approved buyer and it is believed by many conservation groups that the African nations selling ivory were waiting for China to be approved to drive up the price. Mary Rice, executive director of the Environmental Investigation Agency, said: "We're concerned that there will now be a bidding war, which will send out the wrong message."